'Hurricane Hunters' debuts on The Weather Channel

Pardon Christian D'Andrea if he must suppress a smile when he’s on a commercial airliner experiencing turbulence. As creator, director and executive producer of the new Weather Channel series “Hurricane Hunters,” he’s flown through much worse. The new documentary series, which debuts with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. Monday (June 11), flies into and out of hurricanes with the Biloxi, Miss.-based 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron.

The Weather ChannelMajor Sean Cross.

“There’s a gigantic ‘Wow’ factor to it that hits you right between the eyes,” D’Andrea said during a recent phone interview. “It’s 2012. We’re a very sophisticated civilization, technologically speaking. We have satellites beaming information 24 hours a day. And yet in 2012 we have to send human beings in airplanes into the eyes of hurricanes, one of the most dangerous places imaginable. Not above the hurricane but actually through it and into the eye itself.

“When you're boarding that plane for the first time to go into your first hurricane and you know where that plane is about to go, it's a bizarre feeling. But I will say one thing. You're not afraid when you're on the plane, because the crew, the guys and gals who fly those planes, are so professional. They’re so cool, it's infectious. And you become as calm as you can be given what you’re about to go do.”

One of those professionals is Major Sean Cross, a New Orleans native entering his 12th season as a Hurricane Hunter.

A Riverdale High School and Nicholls State University graduate, Cross grew up in hurricane country only to pursue a career flying into them. He made three such trips into Katrina, for example.

“I can always remember my mom and dad talking about Hurricane Betsy back in the 1960s,” Cross said, in a separate phone interview. “How it was like a vacuum being pulled through the house with the linens flying and everything. She remembered my dad putting plywood up against the back window because it was so bad.”

He also remembers watching as a kid a TV-news report about the Hurricane Hunters.

“There was footage of the crew members walking through the lobby of the building, and as they were going out the door to go to the aircraft, they walked under a sign that said, ‘Through these doors walk the world famous Hurricane Hunters.’ We still have that sign today. I walk under it every time I go to fly. I remember seeing it and thinking how great that would be, to get to do that as an Air Force pilot.”

Cross’s job now is to complete storm diagnosis begun by satellite technology. On-board instruments and a device called a dropsonde – a tube full of sensors released into the storm – help forecasters measure storm intensity and refine their estimated tracks.

“With all the apparatus we have – satellites, etc. -- we get about 70 percent of the data we need to predict storm strength and storm path,” D'Andrea said. “How powerful will that hurricane be? When is it going to make landfall? Where will it make landfall? The extra 30 percent that helps us determine more specifically how strong it will be and where it’s going to hit is gathered by the Hurricane Hunters in planes.

“I've always marveled at that fact, that 30 percent of what we know of one of the most powerful forces in Mother Nature is diagnosed not by the incredible technology in the satellites, but by guys in planes in the storm.”

And even with all of the advancements made in satellite forecasting, it appears we’ll depend on the Hurricane Hunters indefinitely.

“I'm not a scientist. I'm just a pilot,” Cross said. “If the science was there to make it happen, I think it would already be happening. Obviously, they haven't broken the code yet.

“That dropsonde does a lot for us. Until they come up with something to replace that, we’re going to continue to fly storms.”

Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3429. Read more TV coverage at NOLA.com/tv. Follow him at twitter.com/davewalkertp.